Rwandese Alleges Abominable Uganda Torture

The alleged torture victim says on one occasion during the numerous tortures starting from his arrest in 2005 until his recent release a few days ago, he was stripped naked and a string was tied to his testiclesâ€”Kalinga claims the string was then tied to a vehicle and he was ordered to pull the car.

Allegations Of Torture

A 37 year old Rwandese citizen says he was illegally detained fornearly two years in Ugandan jails and subjected to gruesome torturesincluding having his testicles immobilized by being pulled out with astring.

The Rwandese national, who says he intends to sue the Ugandangovernment, claims in one incident, his back was smeared with lard,wrapped with a shirt, and then a hot iron was run over his back forabout half an hour. This form of allegedtorture didnâ€™t burn the skin on his back but the heat seared into hisbody,damaging internal organs he claims.

â€œI am now bleeding from my anus,â€? the Rwandese national, Acleo Kalinga, told The Black Starin a telephone interview from Kigali, the Rwanda capital. Kalingasaid he was arrested after he had driven into Uganda on June 7, 2005with afriend who wanted to pick up his mother who lived in Uganda, formedicaltreatment in neighboring Rwanda. He says he was accused of being a spy,blindfolded and then taken from one interrogation center to the nextand tortured. He says he was accused of having been sent by Rwandaâ€™sintelligence services to assassinate Ugandan leaders. He says he hasnever beeen a member of Rwandese intelligence or the armed forces butthat Ugandan security agents refused to believe him.

Relations between Uganda and Rwanda have deteriorated severely since the twonationâ€™s armies fought brief but fierce battles during their occupationof Eastern Congo, with Rwanda gaining the upperhand in that episode.

Officials at the Rwanda foreign ministry in Kigali could not be reachedfor comment by press time; Uganda officials in Kampala also couldnâ€™t bereached by press time. Uganda security officials have denied anywrongdoing in comments given to local media there.

A Rwandese doctor, Ooreste Puganeyzu, a general practitioner at a clinic in Kigali, told The Black Star by telephone that Kalinga has no sensation on his back. The doctor added that Kalinga was "psychotic" as a result of thetorture he alleged and that he needed advanced facilities and medical experts fortreatment. "He needs to go to Nairobi," he said.

â€œHe has gone through traumatic experiencesâ€”not only physical but alsopsyshcotic. I think that he needs more experienced medical staff thatwe donâ€™t have here in Rwanda,â€? said, Dr. Puganeyzu, of the Polyclinicdu Carrefour. He added that he had been practicing medicine for sevenyears. He said he didnâ€™t know whether Kalingaâ€™s nerve damages werepermanent or if they can be reversed. â€œHe cannot feel anything on hisback; his alert system is not there,â€? Puganeyzu said. â€œIf you light amatch to his back he cannot feel it.â€?

Separately, Kalinga told The Black Starthat since his testicles were damaged sometime last year, he has been renderedimpotent. He says on that occasion, he was stripped naked and a string was tied around his testicles thentied to a vehicle and he was ordered to pull the car. Afterwards, thestring was tied to a tree and he was again ordered to pull.

Kalinga says his testicles were so swollen that it took two months forthem to regain normal size. Nonetheless, before the swelling hadreduced, armed guards came to his cell and beat his testicles withelectrical chords, he says.

Kalinga says he had been taken, blindfolded, at around 3 a.m. on thatmorning. He believes the torture occured near Entebbe InternationalAirport. "I could hear airplanes in the morning," he said. He saysbefore the torture the blindfold was removed. He described the car as asilver colored Totoya Max 2. "I lost my manhood. The government ofUganda should be responsible," he said.

Kalinga says there are days when he canâ€™t even walk now and thatheâ€™slost hearing in one ear and sense of taste and smell.Â He says heendured sustained beatings on his head with batons by security guards.â€œIf it is honeyor pepper I cannot know,â€? he said, referring to his inability to taste.Kalinga says he is now destitute andthat he returned to find that his wife had abandoned him and his house,outside Kigali, was bare.

The Black Star has learnedthat a Red Cross official may have examined Kalinga while still inUganda capitivity. Uganda law requires detainees to be charged within48 hours;Â Kalinga says he was never produced in court in thealmost two years of capitivity.

Kalinga told The Black Starthat one of the so-called â€œsafe housesâ€? where he was tortured was nextto the residence of the Danish ambassador to Uganda and that on oneoccasion he managed to scale a fence but that Ugandan officials jumpedafter him and dragged him back in full view of Danish officials, toresume the torture, even as he cried for help. The Danish embassy couldnot be reached by presstime.

Kalinga was freed May 3rd, 2007, after Ugandan opposition officials,including Members of Parliament,Â learned of his predicament. TheMPs and activists had been arrested in a completely unrelated matter; amassive protest April 12, in Kampala against the Uganda government's plan to giveaway parts of Mabira forest to an investor in a sweetheart deal. Thosearrested were accused of inciting violence at the demonstration inwhich three people died.

One of the activists who helped secure Kalingaâ€™s release was FredMukasa Mbidde, 32, vice president of Uganda Young Democrats andcampaign director of the Democratic Party, an opposition partythere--he too had been arrested at the Mabira protest. Mbidde learnedof Kalingaâ€™s plight and upon release he widely publicized the case inUganda media, including radio.

â€œHis testicles were fully torturedâ€”stretched, and I believe he lost hismanhood, Mukasa Mbidde told The Black Star in a telephone interviewfrom Uganda. â€œHe may also lose his eye sight,â€? he said, adding thatKalingaâ€™s case was â€œthe best exampleâ€? of the level of human rightsabuses in Uganda.

Mbidde, a candidate for parliament in an upcoming by-election, said hebelieved Kalinga would work with Rwandese authorities to sue the Ugandagovernment. Another opposition leader who worked hard to secureKalingaâ€™s freedom after his own release was Member of Parliament,Hussein Kyanjo, who couldnâ€™t be reached by presstime.

Opposition leaders have been complaining about torturechambers and so-called â€œsafe houses,â€? residences spread around thecountry, where civilians are said to be tortured.

Upon his release, Kalinga was whisked to the airport byRwandaâ€™s ambassador to Uganda and flown to Kigali. Kalinga says evenafter his bond was set, Uganda's Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence(CMI) wanted to re-arrest him from a police precinct but that officershid him in a toilet and then spirited him out a back door.

In Kigali, he was interviewed by security officials and allowed to gohome; he says he hasn't received proper evaluation and care for lack offunds. As for Rwanda taking up the matter with Uganda officials? Hesays he was told the matter is being handled diplomatically. "What doesthat mean? I am dying," he said.

Kalinga says he was born in Luwero, to a Rwandese exile family March30, 1970, and that he attended primary and secondary school there; hesays he has a Bachelor of Surgery degree from Makerere University inUganda. Before his arrest, he was running an organization he founded in2000, Rwanda Food Program, designed to alleviate hunger in the ruralareas and that he had been working on getting help for a healthcarecenter. "My kidnapping halted the project," he said.

Uganda continues to enjoyÂ warm relations with London and Washington,and the East African country, despite a surge in human rights abuses is slatedto host this year's Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting inNovember.

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